NATO seeks regime change in Russia - envoy

The latest statements by the deputy head of NATO testify to the fact that the leaders of the bloc want to intervene in Russia’s internal politics, and are “dreaming of Russian Maidan.” This is the view of Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO.

“The speech in Riga demonstrates the concern about Russia’s
democracy and internal policy. At last, now we know that NATO has
a dream, and this dream is a Maidan in Russia,” Aleksandr
Grushko said in comment that was tweeted through the Russian
representation office in the alliance.

Grushko referred to the words of NATO's deputy secretary general,
Alexander Vershbow, who had told a conference in the Latvian
capital Riga that President Vladimir Putin's "aim seems to be
to turn Ukraine into a failed state and to suppress and discredit
alternative voices in Russia, so as to prevent a Russian
'Maidan.'" Both officials used the Ukrainian word ‘Maidan’
to describe a string of protest actions that eventually turned
into mass unrest and the ousting of the legally elected president
and parliament.

Grushko added that NATO itself has used “hybrid warfare” against
foreign states and now the alliance is attempting to accuse
Russia of starting such a war in Ukraine.

“NATO has a long history of hybrid operations. Any country or
organization can take a lesson from it. We have earlier seen
these signs of military intimidation, hidden involvement, weapons
supplies,economic blackmail, diplomatic duplicity, mass media
manipulations and open disinformation,” the Russian envoy
stated.

“The statement made in Riga is yet another set of arguments
seeking only to justify NATO’s confrontational attitude to
Russia,” he said.

“It is not likely that NATO has the right to consider itself
the sole source of truth. The alliance has repeatedly discredited
itself by spreading false information both about its own behavior
and about the actions of others,” Grushko said in
conclusion. “Not many will follow NATO’s advice to return to
the times of the Cold War,” he forecasted.

In October last year, Grushko urged Western nations to
acknowledge their policy faults and improve relations with
Russia.

“We and our Western partners, first of all Europe, must
recognize that their policies of the past few years are only
deepening the dividing lines between Russia and Europe, and this
is extremely dangerous,” the Russian diplomat said. “The
West must eventually acknowledge the fact that the mechanical
implementation of its recent policies is leading itself into a
dead end.”